President Obama's New Tax Foe: Bill Clinton

President Barack Obama with former President Bill Clinton (left). Photo: REUTERS

Although President Obama has received flak from Republicans over his tax proposals, a new, unlikely critic has now emerged: Former President Bill Clinton.

In an interview with Newsmax, a conservative news magazine, Clinton told founder and CEO Christopher Ruddy that Obama's approach to tackling the deficit was a little confusing.

I personally don't believe we ought to be raising taxes or cutting spending until we get this economy off the ground, Clinton said. If we cut government spending, which I normally would be very inclined to do when the deficit's this big; with interest rates already near zero you can't get the benefits out of it.

Clinton went on to say that he firmly supports cutting payroll taxes.

Besides Obama's deficit reduction pans, the former president also took a swipe at regulations, which has been a key strategy of Republicans heading into the 2012 elections. For example, Clinton said the Dodd-Frank law should be implemented more slowly to allow businesses more time to adapt.

What I find is a lot of business people can be supportive of new regulations and new standards, but particularly in a fragile time they don't like to have too many things changing at once, Clinton said.

Although conveniently neglecting the fact that Clinton chided spending cuts, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor gave rare praise to the former Democratic president.

President Clinton is right, now is not the time to raise taxes, and we ought to be working together to produce results and get people working again, a statement from Cantor said, first reported by Politico.

I hope President Obama will heed the advice of President Clinton and drop his demand for one of the largest tax increases in American history. House Republicans stand ready to find common ground, grow the economy and get people back to work, Cantor said.